


Took A While (But You Found Me)

by Spacecadet72



Category: Knives Out (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:59:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecadet72/pseuds/Spacecadet72
Summary: Benoit Blanc gets his soulmark when he is twenty years old. Marta Cabrera is born with hers. Thirty one years later, they meet.
Relationships: Benoit Blanc/Marta Cabrera
Comments: 25
Kudos: 418





	Took A While (But You Found Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I've loved this movie since I first saw it over Thanksgiving, but this ship kind of snuck up on me over the past week or so. When the idea for this fic popped into my head, I couldn't not write it. This is my first soulmate fic of this variety, so that was fun too.
> 
> Title comes from the song Hello by Allie X.

Marta is born with her mark, four words on her right side across her ribs in spiky handwriting.

_Harlan Thrombey's nurse, Marta_

She is told that he is a famous mystery writer living in America, and as a small child, she wonders how she is supposed to get all the way over there to be his nurse.

She isn't even sure she wants to be a nurse. But if it's how she meets her soulmate, doesn't that make it worth it? She's not really against the idea of being a nurse, and if she can support herself and her family, she'll take it. She likes the idea of taking care of people and helping them when they need it.

But there's also the idea that the universe is using her, dictating where she should go, and if it really is in charge, why are she and her family and so many people in the circumstances they’re in when they haven’t done anything wrong? Why do so many bad things still happen? Why would the universe dictate who they should love, and ignore the rest?

In the end, she goes through her nurse training and accepts the job as Harlan Thrombey's nurse. It feels inevitable, but even if she doesn't meet her soulmate, she finds a friend in her employer, and that's enough.

* * *

Benoit isn't born with his soul mark. It's not that uncommon. Your mark appears when your soulmate is born and so most people get it when they're young children.

But Benoit moves through childhood and then his teenage years without one. He knows his parents talk about it when they think he's not listening, about how sad it is that he doesn't have anyone. How maybe there's something wrong with him, or something happened to his soulmate.

He tries not to let it bother him. People find love outside of their soulmates all the time, and even if it means he'll be without that kind of companionship, he can still have a full life. There are so many things he wants to do, so many other mysteries to solve that he can leave the mystery of his soulmate alone.

Until one day, walking across campus, he feels an itchy sensation on his wrist. Pulling his watch strap back to scratch at it, he notices the writing there. He pulls off his watch in amazement as he reads the word--well, name really--on his skin. _Cabrera._ The handwriting is small and delicate. Feminine. It makes for a strange soulmark, in a strange place. Most people's soulmarks are more concealed.

But that's not what bothers him the most. This means his soulmate was just born. He is twenty years old and his soulmate is an infant. He has seen couples with large age gaps, and he knows they can work, but twenty years? And even if he gets past that, it means he won't meet his soulmate for at least twenty or thirty more years.

But then, he thought he didn't have one at all.

He puts his watch back on, his mind spinning, and continues walking to the library to work on homework.

He doesn't tell anyone, and tries to cover it as much as he can with wide watch straps. Occasionally, when he's alone, he'll take his watch off and sound out the name, feel how it rolls around his mouth, how it comes out with his southern drawl.

He knows he won't meet her for some time, and tries mostly to put it out of his mind.

* * *

The first time Marta hears her words, her eyes widen, but the person keeps speaking after she responds as if nothing had happened. Besides, the boy is younger than she is, so it can't be her soulmate. She was born with her mark.

It happens a few more times, and she was already good at pasting a neutral expression on her face and it's never him. She's alright with that. None of the people who say her words are people she would want to be with anyway. If they had been her soulmate, she would have tried to find a way out.

So, when the private investigator says her words in a thick southern accent, she doesn't even blink. He had startled her by looking at her through the window, but these words coming from his mouth don't mean anything. Especially when he continues with their conversation as if it were just any other day.

She wouldn't want to meet her soulmate now anyway. Not now that she is the cause of her friend and employer's death, not now when she has to lie to everyone and pretend she doesn't constantly want to throw up. She especially doesn’t want another connection to a private investigator who could send her to jail and get her mother deported.

She manages to mostly forget about it as she tries to outsmart him over the next few days.

* * *

Lt. Elliott says her name first, and Benoit has to force himself not to react. It's not that uncommon of a name, he's come across it before. It doesn't mean she's his soulmate. When he casually asks after her age, playing up the part of the eccentric private investigator, he tells himself that he's merely curious. If it's an older woman, he'll know for sure that it isn't her. If his math is right, she'd be in her early thirties. Which is something he's grateful for. With such a large age gap, he'd been so worried he'd meet her when she was younger, and he wasn't comfortable with the idea of dating a twenty year old at forty. He would have said no, and that's just a complication he doesn't need.

But when Lt. Elliott says "thirty one" casually, without looking up from his notes, Benoit feels something inside him, almost like hope. He squashes it down. He has a job to do.

When he finally meets her, and he all but forces her to say his words, it feels wrong, like he's trying to cheat the system.

It doesn't matter, because she doesn't react and he's grateful it isn't her. She's somehow involved with Harlan Thrombey's death and getting emotionally involved is not how he solves cases.

Still, he's been imagining his soulmate on and off for the past thirty years, and if it had been her, he definitely could have done worse. She's kind and intelligent and beautiful and there are moments he wishes their partnership could be something more.

But that's not what's meant to be, and it's not what she wants, especially not now, in her grief, so he lets it go.

* * *

The case is solved, and Marta is innocent. She never caused Harlan's death and now she has the resources to help her family, to help the Thrombey's even. She will, even if Blanc thinks she shouldn't. As she goes about dealing with the fallout of the will and the discovery of the truth, the private detective is in her thoughts and she almost wishes he had been her soulmate. She thinks he would have been a good one.

* * *

As Benoit turns down the road towards the Thrombey--no, Cabrera now--mansion, he tells himself that while this is purely a social call, he's making it as a friend.

It's been a few months since the end of the Thrombey case, and he's seen Marta a few times, at the courthouse and other such places, and she's looked so drawn and tired. He called her up last week to ask if he could come for a visit, to see her. He wants to make sure she's okay, that those vultures haven't taken too much from her. She doesn't deserve that.

And yes, he likes her, and sometimes he wishes she was his soulmate, but she isn't. The universe has decreed that they shouldn’t be together. And he's been around a long time, has seen both soulmate and non soulmate relationships succeed and fail, but there's something about the handwriting on his wrist that feels like he should wait for her. Perhaps she has been waiting for him, and he doesn't want to let her down.

So, as intelligent and intriguing as Marta Cabrera is, he is going to visit her only as a friend. To make sure she's okay.

There are bags under her eyes when she opens the door, but her smile is wide and happy as she welcomes into the foyer. "Benoit, it's so good to see you," she says as he removes his shoes and coat.

"How have you been, Marta?" he asks as they walk into the kitchen, where she has some food laid out for lunch.

She shrugs. "The trial is over, thank goodness and I've been busy getting everything settled with Harlan's estate. It's good to see you."

"This empty house too big for one person?" he asks, knowing her mother is away visiting relatives and her sister is at school. This house is too much for even three people, especially with the ghost of Harlan's memory in every corner.

She nods. "But you're here now. How have you been? Any good cases?"

"Nothing as exciting as your case," he says with a chuckle. "But interesting ones all the same. I'm in between cases at the moment, and thought it would be a good time to visit an old friend."

She smiles at him, all kindness and goodness as she hands him a plate, and he knows that soulmate or not, Marta Cabrera will have a lasting effect on him, no matter how long she is in his life.

* * *

He calls on her sometimes, for advice during cases, or just to catch up.

"I'm not a detective," she protests the first time he asks for advice. "I'm not even a nurse anymore."

"Now, that's not true," he says, shaking his head, even though she can't see it. "You are both of those things, and good ones to boot."

She doesn't protest any further, but answers his questions and gives him insight that helps him solve the case.

It becomes more common as time goes on, and soon enough, she's become his unofficial partner. Although she no longer needs to work, she's busy enough with the charities she works with, and with being a person that society pays attention to now. But she finds time for him and for their cases.

They are working on a case, wandering down the street talking over details when someone bumps into Benoit, spilling their drink all over him. Hot coffee.

He hisses out in pain, and pulls at his watch, which is now covered in coffee. It stings against his skin, and Marta is reaching out to grab his hand.

"Let me see," she says, taking his hand with hers before remembering just what is written on his wrist.

He tries to pull back. "I'm fine," he says, hoping she'll buy it.

She rolls her eyes. "Just let me look, you big baby--" her words trail off as she flips his arm over and sees the name on his skin. Her name.

"It's not what it looks like," he says, wanting to get the shocked expression off her face. This isn't how he wanted this to go. If anything, he's been hoping she would never find out that his soulmate has some connection to someone with a name like hers.

Her eyes widen and meet his as her mouth falls open. She runs her thumb over the name, coffee be damned, and it feels like a benediction, the way it moves softly against his skin.

"That's my handwriting," she says, and he looks at it again and realizes she's right. How has he never noticed it before? He was so convinced it wasn't her that he didn't even consider the possibility. Soulmates are supposed to recognize each other at first meeting. Not take months and months to realize what they've found.

Taking his wrist in a firmer grip, she pulls him along, until they are standing behind a dumpster in an alley, hidden from the street.

"Marta, what are you doi--" he trails off as she yanks her shirt up to expose her side to him. He would be shocked, period, at this gesture as Marta is a very modest woman, but then his eyes catch on the words written across her ribs. "Harlan Thrombey's nurse, Marta..." he says, reaching out to trace the words with his fingers. They are in his handwriting. He pulls back before he actually touches her skin, remembering himself. He lifts his eyes to meet hers. "It's you," is all he can get out.

She is looking up at him, nodding with tears in her eyes. There is a beat of silence, something heavy filling the space between them, and then she is pushing up on her toes to press her lips softly to his.

He presses back, but keeps the kiss soft and tender, his hands gentle against her back, not wanting to push further just at first. That and they're standing amongst filth next to a dumpster in a dirty alley.

She pulls back and her grin is so wide, he can't help but meet her smile with one of his own. He reaches down, takes her hand in his--the one with her name right below his palm--and they walk hand in hand back onto the sidewalk.

"I wanted it to be you," she says quietly later, once they are back in his apartment, her hand firmly in his. "Not at first, of course, I was so overwhelmed and scared, but once the case was solved, you were so kind and smart, and I thought how nice it would be to have a soulmate like that."

"I thought it might be you," he says, remembering that moment when Lt. Elliott had said her name. "When I first heard your name, and then I was disappointed when I thought it wasn't."

"But you didn't react to my saying your word," she says, sounding confused.

He shrugs. "I had basically forced you into it. I didn't think it could be real, like I had cheated somehow. Besides, you didn't react either," he says, bumping her shoulder with his.

"You weren't the first person to say my words," she says with a shake of her head. "It wasn’t my soulmate the first time, so I always waited for the other person to react."

"Well, I for one am glad that we've figured it out," he says, leaning down to press his forehead to hers. "Soulmate or not, I love you, Marta Cabrera."

She smiles up at him again, this one soft and oh, so happy. "I love you, too."

Not wanting to waste another second, he leans down to capture her lips with his. If this is what he has waited fifty years for, maybe the universe knows what it is about after all.


End file.
